Chapter 26 - Enter Christine

The girls at Patty's Place were dressing for the reception which
the Juniors were giving for the Seniors in February. Anne surveyed
herself in the mirror of the blue room with girlish satisfaction.
She had a particularly pretty gown on. Originally it had been
only a simple little slip of cream silk with a chiffon overdress.
But Phil had insisted on taking it home with her in the Christmas
holidays and embroidering tiny rosebuds all over the chiffon.
Phil's fingers were deft, and the result was a dress which was
the envy of every Redmond girl. Even Allie Boone, whose frocks
came from Paris, was wont to look with longing eyes on that rosebud
concoction as Anne trailed up the main staircase at Redmond in it.

Anne was trying the effect of a white orchid in her hair.
Roy Gardner had sent her white orchids for the reception,
and she knew no other Redmond girl would have them that night
-- when Phil came in with admiring gaze.

"Anne, this is certainly your night for looking handsome.
Nine nights out of ten I can easily outshine you. The tenth
you blossom out suddenly into something that eclipses me altogether.
How do you manage it?"

"It's the dress, dear. Fine feathers."

"`Tisn't. The last evening you flamed out into beauty you
wore your old blue flannel shirtwaist that Mrs. Lynde made you.
If Roy hadn't already lost head and heart about you he certainly
would tonight. But I don't like orchids on you, Anne. No; it
isn't jealousy. Orchids don't seem to BELONG to you. They're
too exotic -- too tropical -- too insolent. Don't put them in
your hair, anyway."

"Well, I won't. I admit I'm not fond of orchids myself. I don't
think they're related to me. Roy doesn't often send them -- he
knows I like flowers I can live with. Orchids are only things
you can visit with."

"Jonas sent me some dear pink rosebuds for the evening -- but --
he isn't coming himself. He said he had to lead a prayer-meeting
in the slums! I don't believe he wanted to come. Anne, I'm
horribly afraid Jonas doesn't really care anything about me. And
I'm trying to decide whether I'll pine away and die, or go on and
get my B.A. and be sensible and useful."

"But -- he won't TELL me so. And I can't MAKE him. He LOOKS it,
I'll admit. But speak-to-me-only-with-thine-eyes isn't a really
reliable reason for embroidering doilies and hemstitching
tablecloths. I don't want to begin such work until I'm really
engaged. It would be tempting Fate."

"Mr. Blake is afraid to ask you to marry him, Phil. He is poor
and can't offer you a home such as you've always had. You know
that is the only reason he hasn't spoken long ago."

Anne was trying to fasten a little gold chain about her throat.
She suddenly found the clasp difficult to manage. WHAT was the
matter with it -- or with her fingers?

"No," she said carelessly." Who is Christine Stuart?"

"Ronald Stuart's sister. She's in Kingsport this winter studying
music. I haven't seen her, but they say she's very pretty and
that Gilbert is quite crazy over her. How angry I was when you
refused Gilbert, Anne. But Roy Gardner was foreordained for you.
I can see that now. You were right, after all."

Anne did not blush, as she usually did when the girls assumed
that her eventual marriage to Roy Gardner was a settled thing.
All at once she felt rather dull. Phil's chatter seemed trivial
and the reception a bore. She boxed poor Rusty's ears.

"Get off that cushion instantly, you cat, you! Why don't you
stay down where you belong?"

Anne picked up her orchids and went downstairs, where Aunt Jamesina
was presiding over a row of coats hung before the fire to warm.
Roy Gardner was waiting for Anne and teasing the Sarah-cat while
he waited. The Sarah-cat did not approve of him. She always
turned her back on him. But everybody else at Patty's Place liked
him very much. Aunt Jamesina, carried away by his unfailing and
deferential courtesy, and the pleading tones of his delightful voice,
declared he was the nicest young man she ever knew, and that Anne
was a very fortunate girl. Such remarks made Anne restive. Roy's
wooing had certainly been as romantic as girlish heart could desire,
but -- she wished Aunt Jamesina and the girls would not take things
so for granted. When Roy murmured a poetical compliment as he helped
her on with her coat, she did not blush and thrill as usual; and he
found her rather silent in their brief walk to Redmond. He thought
she looked a little pale when she came out of the coeds' dressing room;
but as they entered the reception room her color and sparkle suddenly
returned to her. She turned to Roy with her gayest expression.
He smiled back at her with what Phil called "his deep, black,
velvety smile." Yet she really did not see Roy at all. She was
acutely conscious that Gilbert was standing under the palms just
across the room talking to a girl who must be Christine Stuart.

She was very handsome, in the stately style destined to become
rather massive in middle life. A tall girl, with large dark-blue
eyes, ivory outlines, and a gloss of darkness on her smooth hair.

"She looks just as I've always wanted to look," thought Anne
miserably. "Rose-leaf complexion -- starry violet eyes -- raven
hair -- yes, she has them all. It's a wonder her name isn't
Cordelia Fitzgerald into the bargain! But I don't believe her
figure is as good as mine, and her nose certainly isn't."